By By BRIAN HAINES
Sports Writer
GREENVILLE — Some hot shooting helped break the Pirates cold streak as East Carolina shot over 50 percent from the field to edge out Tulane 71-68 and snap a three-game losing streak Wednesday night.
East Carolina had four players reach double-digits in scoring, led by a solid performance by junior point guard Brock Young, who tallied a game-highs in points and assists with 18 and nine, respectively.
Jamar Abrams’ hot hand continued as the ECU forward hit four of his nine three-point attempts while going 6-12 from the floor to tally 16 points.
Darrius Morrow added 11 points and seven rebounds and carried the offense early in the second half before he fouled out with 6:30 left in the game.
Shooting guard Jontae Sherrod also added some key buckets en route to 11 points.
The win gave ECU its second Conference USA win of the year, with their first coming Jan. 24 on the road against the Green Wave (7-16, 2-8).
Despite playing without its top two scorers in Kevin Sims and Kris Richard, Tulane overcame a 13-point, first-half deficit and took a 63-62 lead with under five minutes left in the second half.
The Pirates managed to buck the trend of folding in the second half of games and rallied to recapture the lead when Young found Abrams for a dunk that gave ECU a 67-66 advantage.
East Carolina’s defense held up from that point on, allowing the team to celebrate its first home win since Jan. 3, when it beat N.C. Central 68-58.
“I thought the start indicated that we were pretty focused and bounced back from what was a pretty disappointing performance on Saturday (a 100-49 loss to Marshall),” ECU coach Mack McCarthy said. “But I thought a bigger statement about the team was the way we lost the lead in the second half and didn’t hang our heads and came back and took the lead back. … I just think that, that speaks volumes about where they are. They are still trying to do everything it takes to win.”
Abrams said that picking up a win was a giant morale boost for a struggling team.
“It feels good (to snap the streak). It feels like we got a little bit of weight lifted off our shoulders,” Abrams said. “There’s not as much pressure to get a win now; we are just playing basketball and having fun.”
Young, who has struggled with his shooting percentage in recent games, hit on five of his 10 attempts against the Green Wave. Young said that extra practice time paid off on Wednesday.
“After the two losses we had I looked at my stats and realized my numbers,” Young said. “So I just came in before practice and stayed after practice taking shots.”
The speedy point guard was impossible to cover at times, especially with Tulane freshmen Jordan Callahan and Kendall Timmons playing in place of the injured Sims (wrist) and Richard (ankle).
Timmons led the Wave with 16 points, while Aaron Holmes added 15, David Booker chipped in 12 and Asim McQueen scored 10.
Tulane had a chance to tie the game with 3 seconds left on the clock, but a Johnny Mayhane three-pointer missed its mark.
Green Wave coach Dave Dickerson said that the play of the ECU point guard was the biggest difference in the game.
“It was hard for our young guards to handle Brock Young,” Dickerson said. “He was the X-factor in the game. I have a freshman point guard starting and a sophomore backing him up, and neither one of those guys were tough enough and mature enough to stay in front of him and keep him out of the lane. I thought that was the factor of the game.”
Young also displayed better shot selection, bucking the trend of forcing shots and trying too hard to do everything on his own.
McCarthy has tweaked the offense recently, hoping to take some of the pressure off of Young in halfcourt sets and put him in a better position to score.
“On one hand you want the ball in Brock’s hands a lot, but I thought we got to relying on that too much,” McCarthy said. “It’s fine when he’s got it in his hands and they are pressing us and he is making decisions four-on-three or three-on-two, but when it’s five-on-five and everybody is focused on him, it keeps him from being as productive. It makes the decision making for him harder and he wasn’t getting a lot of help.
“Tonight we didn’t execute it great, but we still had some more ball reversals, we had some inside-out action and we still had enough spacing where we had some opportunities for him to drive.”
The Pirates will look to build on this win Saturday, when they will be back in action at UTEP.
EAST CAROLINA 71, TULANE 68
TULANE (7-16)
Booker 2-5 8-9 12, Beasley 0-1 0-0 0, Callahan 2-7 0-2 5, Holmes 5-10 4-8 15, Vianney 4-9 0-0 9, Rogers 0-0 0-0 0, McQueen 5-8 0-0 10, Timmons 6-10 3-5 16, Mayhane 0-5 1-2 1, Hogan 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-55 16-26 68.
EAST CAROLINA (8-16)
Morrow 3-4 5-9 11, Abrams 6-12 0-0 16, Wynn 0-1 3-4 3, Young 5-10 8-10 18, Sherrod 3-6 4-4 11, Gaines 2-2 0-0 4, Straughn 0-2 1-2 1, Ellison 1-1 0-0 3, Joyner 1-1 2-2 4. Totals 21-39 23-31 71.
Halftime—East Carolina 41-31. 3-Point Goals—Tulane 4-13 (Timmons 1-1, Holmes 1-2, Callahan 1-2, Vianney 1-5, Beasley 0-1, Mayhane 0-2), East Carolina 6-13 (Abrams 4-9, Ellison 1-1, Sherrod 1-2, Straughn 0-1). Fouled Out—Morrow, Vianney. Rebounds—Tulane 28 (Vianney 8), East Carolina 31 (Morrow 7). Assists—Tulane 18 (Callahan 10), East Carolina 12 (Young 9). Total Fouls—Tulane 23, East Carolina 21. A—3,321.